LACP-SG: Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Smart Grids

Abstract

Smart grid (SG) recently acquired considerable attention due to their utilization in sustaining demand response management in power systems. Smart meters (SMs) deployed in SG systems collect and transmit data to the server. Since all communications between SM and the server occur through a public communication channel, the transmitted data are exposed to adversary attacks. Therefore, security and privacy are essential requirements in the SG system for ensuring reliable communication. Additionally, an AuthentiCation (AC) protocol designed for secure communication should be lightweight so it can be applied in a resource-constrained environment. In this article, we devise a lightweight AC protocol for SG named LACP-SG. LACP-SG employs the hash function, “Esch256”, and “authenticated encryption” to accomplish the AC phase. The proposed LACP-SG assures secure data exchange between SM and server by validating the authenticity of SM. For encrypted communication, LACP-SG enables SM and the server to establish a session key (SEK). We use the random oracle model to substantiate the security of the established SEK. Moreover, we ascertain that LACP-SG is guarded against different security vulnerabilities through Scyther-based security validation and informal security analysis. Furthermore, comparing LACP-SG with other related AC protocols demonstrates that LACP-SG is less resource-intensive while rendering better security characteristics.

Lightweight Hash-Based Authentication Protocol for Smart Grids

“…In 2020, Kaveh and Mosavi [8] introduced an authentication scheme for SG environments using a physically unclonable function to counteract attacks involving physical replication or damage. Recently, Tanveer and Alasmary [9] proposed an authentication scheme for SG environments using the new hash function "Esch256". In 2021, Aghapour et al [10] proposed a fully lightweight two-way communication scheme for SG environments.…”

“…As the sales of electric vehicles and power consumption increase significantly every year, SGs and related security issues have become more important [3]. One of the key components of the SG is the deployment of smart meters (SMs) in households and buildings [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], which enable the real-time monitoring and management of electricity usage by both power suppliers and consumers.…”

“…Recently, researchers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] have conducted studies on the security of SMs and their communication protocols; however, several of these studies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] have failed to satisfy the various security requirements outlined earlier. In 2021, Aghapour et al [10] published a study on lightweight cryptography.…”

A Provably Secure Anonymous Authentication Protocol for Consumer and Service Provider Information Transmissions in Smart Grids

“…Additionally, it incurs high computation overheads during the generation of security tokens at the Trusted Authority (TA) [1]. On the same breadth, the technique introduced in [28] fails to offer untraceability and identity protection [29]. To deal with these challenges, an anonymous authentication protocol is introduced in [30].…”

Robust and Efficient Authentication and Group–Proof Scheme Using Physical Unclonable Functions for Wearable Computing

“… eavesdrops on the transmitted messages during the AKA phase and then attempts to authenticate with other parties by transmitting the intercepted data in the previous session. A solution to prevent replay attacks, such as the existing schemes [ 37 , 38 ], is to add random nonces and timestamps to the information exchanged so that the data are unique for each authentication phase. Thus, the AGPS-PUF verifies the freshness of .…”